Retail sales facilities such as large department stores typically receive products by way of delivery via trucks during predetermined delivery time windows. Inventory management systems of such retail sales facilities generally update the perpetual inventory in their inventory management database based on the time of delivery. Such updates are made on an assumption that the products are delivered within the scheduled time window and that the products are binned and worked to the sales floor immediately or shortly after the products are delivered.
A problem with updating perpetual inventory based on such assumptions is that deliveries are not always made within the estimated delivery windows, and that the products are not always unloaded off the truck right away after being delivered the retail sales facility. For example, in some situations, unloading crews may not always be available to unload products from a delivery truck when the delivery truck arrives later or earlier than scheduled. In addition, the products do not always get binned or worked to the sales floor immediately after being taken off the delivery truck, and may be stored in the product receiving area and/or in the stock room until the workers are available to sort and scan the products.
A result of the above shortcomings of the conventional perpetual inventory updating methods is that some products may be indicated as being on-hand and available at the retail sales facility in the inventory management system, but may not be in the bins in the stock room or on the shelves of the sales floor. Such lack of precision with respect to the on-hand inventory in the inventory management system of the retail sales facility may lead to various inefficiencies including extended worker time spent trying to locate products at the retail sales facility and/or relying on availability of products that may not yet be available. Such inefficiencies are likely to increase the costs associated with product sorting at the retail sales facility and decrease the productivity of the workers at the retail sales facility.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.